NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was once in a rush to cut this deal prior to the pizza got chilly.

The NFL said Wednesday it has tapped Pizza Hut to develop into its respectable sponsor — lower than 24 hours after the league and Papa John’s parted ways following remaining year’s tiff among Goodell and the pizza chain’s ex-CEO over the national anthem protests.

“With a focal point on circle of relatives, pals and amusing, Pizza Hut has the creativity we are looking for in a partner,” Goodell said in a Wednesday commentary that confirmed the NFL’s new sponsor.

Papa John’s, which later apologized for ex-CEO John Schnatter’s remarks, had insisted on Tuesday that it used to be now not divorcing itself from the NFL altogether. Instead, Papa John’s stated it is transferring its marketing to focus on 22 of the league’s 32 groups on a group-via-staff basis.

The NFL’s 8-12 months partnership with Papa John’s — reduce three years early by means of Tuesday’s statement — have been fraying due to the fact that November, when then Schnatter blamed poor sales at Papa John’s on “poor management” at the NFL.

Schnatter, who exited the pizza chain a month later, stated the league must have stopped avid gamers from kneeling throughout the national anthem immediately after former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick initiated the follow in 2016.

The Papa John’s founder claimed the follow — geared toward elevating awareness of police brutality and social injustice — hurt the NFL’s TELEVISION ratings, which in turn hurt pizza sales.

“the debate is polarizing the buyer, polarizing the rustic,” Schnatter said all the way through a company income name on Nov. 1.